Penn State women’s basketball overcomes late 15-point deficit to knock off Nebraska
Penn State trailed Nebraska by 13 points in the fourth quarter, but were able to erase the deficit with a 15-0 run to win 83-76 Thursday night.
The Lady Lions’ top scorers were Makenna Marisa with 22 points, Kelly Jekot with 13 points (hitting four 3-point field goals) and Niya Beverley with 12 points off of the bench. Their performance allowed Penn State to overcome an eight-game losing streak, much to the joy of coach Carolyn Kieger.
“That’s part of the process of growth when you’re trying to take the program to the next level,” Kieger said. “That’s not going to happen overnight and successes only happen after failures and we know that
“For them, these are life lessons that they’re learning. Things aren’t always going to go your way, you’re not always going to perform the way that you want, but you’ve got to keep fighting, you’ve got to keep battling, you’ve got to keep crawling, grinding — whatever it takes. One step at a time.”
Marisa initially went 1-for-4 (25%) from the field in the first quarter. While her shots weren’t falling, her tenacity kept rising — especially on the defensive end. She had a steal, a block and four defensive rebounds on the night. It was all a part of the plan for the team’s leading scorer.
“I think that that’s the only mindset that you can have in that situation,” Marisa said. “Everyone misses layups, everyone misses shots. So, you just move onto the next. 100 feet, 200 feet, that’s what we say. The next 200 feet, get the next play, get the next steal, get the next bucket. You’re going to get another one.”
Jekot returned for an extra year of eligibility before the season. Her goal was to continue to motivate her team, following a devastating knee injury suffered nearly one year ago.
Thursday night’s game allowed her to find her rhythm and she pushed her teammates to keep fighting in the face of their deficit. It was all about instilling consistency within herself to pass to her fellow Lady Lions.
“I think first off, I love this team,” Jekot said. “The chemistry is awesome. We all love each other, we’re super close and I try to get in the gym as much as possible to try to be consistent. I talk about it a lot — consistency is super important. So, I’m always trying to work on my weaknesses — shooting, ballhandling and if I having a bad shooting night, I’ll try to get more shots up in the gym, whatever it is.”
Nebraska had a solid shooting performance, going 44% from the field, but was marred by a 25% (5-for-20) performance from the 3-point line. Freshman Alexis Markowski had a game-high 23 points and seven rebounds, followed by Isabelle Bourne’s 15 points and Sam Haiby’s 11. Both Bella Cravens and Jaz Shelley scored 10 points for Nebraska.
With just six minutes left in the game, Nebraska opened with a 7-3 run with Markowski scoring five points for a 68-55 lead. Penn State’s Anna Camden knocked down a 3-point shot to begin their push to victory, followed with a layup by Leilani Kapinus, another jumper by Camden and two and-one layups by Shay Hagans and a layup by Marisa.
The Cornhuskers didn’t quit, evening the score at 70-70 with Haiby making two free throws. Beverley came to the rescue for the Lady Lions, knocking down a 3-point shot with Camden following with a jumper and Jekot making one of three foul shots.
With Bourne scoring for Nebraska, Marisa made a shot of her own. The Lady Lions never let up with Jekot hitting a 3-pointer and Marisa scoring another layup for the 83-74 lead with 11 seconds left.
Penn State will take on Michigan State on Monday, Feb. 21 in East Lansing. The game will be televised at 6 p.m. on Big Ten Network.
This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 11:33 PM.
